When last seen in public, the Island Showdown Trophy glistened in the Nevada sun triumphantly held aloft by then-University of Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich in November 2019.
The occasion was the Rainbow Warriors’ 21-7 victory over Nevada-Las Vegas with the trophy, a golden pineapple atop a stand with a variation of the iconic “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign on the base, going to the annual winner.
At the time it marked the third piece of UH’s so-called rivalry trophy collection coming home to Manoa and there were concerns about where to put it amid the burgeoning collection of rivalry hardware.
But today, as it reportedly is encased in the team’s campus locker room, it is the last of the bunch still in the Warriors’ possession as the season draws to a close Saturday night against UNLV at Aloha Stadium.
The Dick Tomey Legacy Trophy was captured Saturday for the first time by San Jose State, 35-24. Five weeks earlier Wyoming reclaimed the longest running item, the Paniolo Trophy, and last year the Air Force Academy snatched back the General Kuter Trophy.
Suddenly, there is plenty of room in UH’s various display cases and, sadly, not a whole lot of other goodies on the line for UH to play for as the season comes to an end.
With a 3-4 record, any thoughts of a return to the Mountain West Championship game disappeared weeks ago as did any notion of a bowl game appearance. The best UH can do is a .500 record and avert a losing season.
The last three weeks the Warriors could have looked at taking on the role of spoiler with their conference unbeatens, Boise State, Nevada and San Jose State coming to town. Alas, while it did knock off Nevada, UH pretty much spoiled its other upset hopes for itself by quickly and irretrievably falling behind the Broncos, 33-9, and the Spartans, 21-0.
Whatever the offensive plan was in those two losses and, indeed all four of its setbacks this season, it was grounded early and the defense got pounded. While UH has usually regrouped somewhat in the second half, the first-half shortcomings have been too severe to overcome and become a season-long disappointment.
As head coach Todd Graham succinctly put it on Saturday, “It’s great to fight back and to come back and all of that, but we shouldn’t have been in that situation.”
But now that too many of those kind of games have put them where they are, here comes UNLV. And, if you are UH, all things considered, there is probably no better team in the MWC you could have picked for the finishing appearance.
The Rebels are the conference’s only winless team (0-5), have been outscored on average, 38-17, and, not surprisingly, opened as 21.5-point underdogs, according to their hometown oddsmakers.
The Rebels, like the shiny pineapple on the Island Showdown Trophy, represent a golden opportunity for the Rainbow Warriors. It isn’t the trophy UH foremost had in mind when the COVID-19 abbreviated season kicked off seven weeks ago, but it is the only one now left for them to still pursue.
It would be especially sad to see it get away, too.
UH TROPHY CASE
Status of Hawaii’s football rivalry-game trophies
Trophy Opponent Current holder
Tomey Legacy San Jose St. San Jose St.
Paniolo Wyoming Wyoming
Gen. Kuter Air Force Air Force
Island Showdown Nevada-Las Vegas Hawaii
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
